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Thursday, December 4, 2014

Napa Smith was knocked out of the IPA Tournament early, and brutally. That organic IPA of theirs was a fat pile of bullshit, and so I've come to expect very little from them. But, for some reason this caught my eye, and I'm rather enjoying it.

On the surface it's just a boring-ass amber lager that faintly reminds me of Oktoberfest, without the blacking-out. But it's nothing that any German brewery couldn't blow out of the water with a small bit of [insert German word for precision stoic effort].

The trick here is the "with grapes" thing. The only thing I can figure out is they used some small amount of trash red-wine grapes from this year's harvest, if only because of the maroon label, and the tinge of red in the appearance. The addition works though. There's a nice acidity that masks a bit of the harshness of the lager, and an essence of grape that mixes nicely with the carbonation. It's got a nice ABV too. (In terms of a harvest celebrator, it's nowhere near Great Beer... Great Wine though.)

The wifey said it "tastes like water", but then added "although... I have been drinking wine, so who knows." Way to pony up and acknowledge any potential bias, Lyn! That makes perfect sense though: this isn't a wine-grape lager. No, it's a lager "with grapes", strictly as advertised. Still, I think this qualifies for the Lotion Club, and is one (small) step towards me respecting NS. Welcome to the club, friends.